I am just about ready to move on from the GarageBand thing – it will be one of my case studies, but any more consecutive posts on the topic and this will turn into some sort of Apple fansite. And I don’t even have a Mac.
However…
It seems quite a lot of people didn’t like it when Wired said, and quoted me as saying, that GarageBand was quite an important development – this bulletin board discussion is an example. Typically, those already skilled and knowledgeable about PC audio and music production technologies are quick to jump in and point out that (for example) ACID is way better than GarageBand, and plus it’s been around for years.
Well, lest anyone thinks that I’ve only just “discovered” music production software via GarageBand hype, let me state (however uncomfortable it feels to do so) that I’ve been a heavy and enthusiastic user of Logic, Sound Forge, and about a zillion plugins and audio toys since 1997. In the last couple of years I’ve used ACID a fair bit and I know my way around Fruity Loops. I have tertiary music qualifications and a background in professional classical music, abundant (if sadly underused) theory skills and a modest amount of knowledge about sound theory and studio recording techniques.
I list these “qualifications” to explain why I’m not evaluating GarageBand in comparison to, say, ACID: GarageBand is aimed at total novices – and I’m not a novice, and (most) ACID users aren’t either. So it doesn’t really matter what I think of GarageBand as compared to ACID or Logic (just by the way though, I think ACID’s interface is quite counter-intuitive). The real point, as I’ve been saying, isn’t really what GarageBand “does” that other software can’t do, it is who is going to be able to use it – every single person who buys a new Mac – because it comes bundled, and because you really only need ears and the ability to use a mouse in order to get started with it. Yes, it’s about marketing – yes, similar tools have been around for the PC for years already, yes, Apple’s innovations are essentially repackaged and aggressively marketed versions of pre-existing software, but that only makes it all the more interesting to me. As part of their contrastive marketing strategy, unlike Microsoft, Apple is clearly encouraging Mac users to see themselves in a particular way – as creators of culture, as cultural agents if you like. Will it work in the case of music? We’ll have to wait and see.
One response to “The GarageBand Controversy”
Software can be important for reasons other than technical innovation. The real value in GarageBand is that Apple is heavily promoting and making this product available to all Mac users. There may be some better product out there that 5 people are rabid fans of, but if only 5 people use it then it doesn’t matter. Excellent digital music production tools are already available to a minority of people – in recording studios. That’s not news. What’s interesting about GarageBand is getting the technology in the hands of millions of people.
(…so yeah, I agree with you…)
-m